In 

Porto  Rican 
Homes 


Published  by  the 

Christian  Woman’s  Board  of  Missions 
College  of  Missions  Building 
Indianapolis,  Ind. 


Published  by  the  Christian  Woman’s  Board  of 
Missions,  College  of  Missions  Building,  Indianapolis, 
Indiana.  Price,  3  cents  each;  25  cents  per  dozen. 

319 


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IN  PORTO  RICAN 
HOMES 


E  have  been  invited  today  to  call  upon 


»  »  the  lady  who  has  taught  Spanish  to  sev¬ 
eral  in  our  Mission.  She  is  a  very  staunch 
Catholic,  having  been  educated  in  a  convent  in 
Spain  where  her  father,  who  was  a  prominent 
doctor  in  Bayamon,  sent  her.  You  see  before  the 
United  States  took  possession  of  Porto  Rico, 
there  were  but  a  few  very  inferior  schools  and 
only  fifteen  percent  of  the  people  could  even 
read  and  write.  Dona  Maria  and  her  sister 
were  among  the  fortunate  few  whose  parents 
were  able  to  send  them  away  to  school. 

Her  home  stands  right  by  the  narrow  side¬ 
walk,  so  we  step  from  the  sidewalk  into  the 
door.  The  windows  that  open  directly  upon 
the  sidewalk,  have  wooden  railings  just  about 
high  enough  to  conveniently  support  the  el¬ 
bows  of  the  members  of  the  family,  who  like 
to  stand  here  and  look  out  into  the  street  in 
the  evening.  Dona  Maria  spends  very  little  of 
her  time  in  this  way,  but  in  almost  any  of  the 
homes  of  her  neighbors  we  see  pretty  senoritas 
daintily  and  sometimes  elegantly  clad,  leaning 
upon  the  railings  of  the  windows  or  upon  the 
railing  of  a  very  narrow  balcony  in  front  of 
the  house.  Often  her  mother,  clad  in  a  loose 
wrapper  which  is  very  much  tucked  and  lace 
betrimmed  and  very  clean,  stands  by  her  side. 
The  passer-by  observes  many  Romeo  and  Juliet 


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scenes,  and  as  we  sit  here  in  Dona  Maria’s 
sala,  or  parlor,  we  are  able  to  see  such  a  scene 
across  the  street. 

Now  let  us' look  about  us.  Our  attention  is 
attracted  to  the  tile  floor,  probably  many  years 
old.  It  looks  somewhat  like  grandmother’s 
four  patch  quilts,  for  it  is  laid  in  six-inch 
tiles,  first  a  figured  one,  then  a  white  one,  all 
over  the  floor.  It  gives  the  effect  of  a  carpet 
and  is  more  sanitary.  The  walls  are  tinted  to 
simulate  marble  to  a  height  of  about  three 
feet  from  the  floor;  above,  there  is  a  plain 
color,  and  next  to  the  ceiling  some  stenciled 
design. 

In  the  center  of  the  parlor  is  the  inevitable 
center  table  with  a  multitude  of  little  bisque 
figures  of  dolls,  dogs,  angels,  dainty  slippers, 
and  what  not.  The  number  of  these  things 
depends  upon  the  pocketbook  of  the  family. 
It  is  desirable  that  the  table  be  completely 
filled  with  them.  Often  in  the  very  center  of 
the  table  stands  a  vase  of  very  gaudy  tissue 
paper  flowers.  The  real  ones  are  so  common, 
where  one  can  step  out  and  gather  roses  at 
Christmas  time,  that  the  tissue  paper  ones  are 
chosen  to  decorate  the  parlor.  Around  the 
center  table  chairs  are  carefully  and  geomet¬ 
rically  placed.  A  large  rocker  faces  each  cor¬ 
ner  of  the  table,  and  sometimes  a  straight 
backed  chair  faces  each  side  of  the  table,  while 
at  other  times  all  of  the  straight  backed  chairs 
stand  in  a  row  against  the  wall.  Pictures  go 
in  pairs.  If  on  one  side  of  a  room  a  gilt 
framed  picture  hangs,  on  the  oj^posite  side,  a 
similar  picture  of  the  same  size  and  same  kind 


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of  frame  must  hang.  Sometimes  the  tvVo  pic* 
tines  are  exactly  alike,  carrying  to  perfection 
the  idea  of  balance. 

We  step  into  a  bed  room,  and  notice  at  once 
the  hangings  of  old  fashioned,  big  designed 
lace  curtains,  such  as  we  used  a  few  years  ago 
for  our  windows.  They  use  them  for  bed  hang¬ 
ings.  The  bed  is  made  with  a  framework,  or 
kind  of  roof,  four  or  five  feet  above  it,  and 
these  curtains  are  thrown  over  the  frame  work. 

Under  the  curtains  is  a  net  which  is  drawn 
carefully  about  the  bed  at  night  to  keep  away 
the  mosquitoes.  A  bright  chromo  of  Mary, 
with  her  heart,  not  on  her  sleeve  but  in  plain 
sight  on  her  breast,  hangs  at  the  head  of  the  , 
bed. 

Let  us  pass  through  the  dining  room.  The 
red  cloth  on  the  table  attracts  our  attention, 
as  does  the  castor  in  the  center  with  its  vine¬ 
gar  cruet,  salt  and  pepper  shakers,  and  oil 
bottle.  Do  not  forget  the  oil. 

The  meals  in  this  home  are  served  in  courses, 
with  special  emphasis  upon  the  meats  and  sub- 
stantials,  and  little  attention  is  paid  to  des¬ 
serts.  A  clean  plate  is  brought  with  each  new 
food  to  be  eaten.  Boast  beef  and  mashed  pota-  \ 

toes  may  begin  the  meal,  then  fried  eggs  and 
French-fried  potatoes,  then  sweet  potatoes, 
served  with  cod  fish,  oil  and  vinegar,  then  rice 
and  beans,  and  for  dessert,  shredded  cocoanut, 
stewed  with  plenty  of  sugar,  or  guava  jelly  or 
some  kind  of  presei'ves,  and  coffee.  Bread  is 
bought  from  the  baker,  and  never  made  in  the 
home.  The  loaves  are  long  and  rather  slender, 


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and  it  is  served  in  chunks  rather  than  in 
slices. 

Bread  and  coffee  is  a  typical  morning  meal, 
and  all  who  have  never  been  in  foreign  lands 
to  learn  the  customs,  dip  their  chunks  of  bread 
into  their  cups  of  coffee.  As  soon  as  a  child 
is  large  enough  to  have  any  food  he  has  bread 
and  coffee. 

Now  let  us  step  into  the  patio  or  inner 
court.  Sometimes  the  houses  are  built  clear 
around  the  patio,  but  Dona  Maria’s  home  is 
on  but  two  sides  of  it,  while  on  the  other  two 
sides  stands  a  very  substantial  concrete  wall 
as  high  as  a  man’s  head.  On  top  of  the  wall 
are  old  broken  bottles,  dozens  of  them,  with 
the  jagged  edges  sticking  upwards.  They  were 
put  there  when  the  cement  was  soft  and  are 
a  part  of  the  wall. 

The  patio  has  a  solid  cement  floor,  except  in 
patches,  some  round  and  some  square,  where 
ilowers  are  planted.  Along  the  walls  are  beau¬ 
tiful  flowering  vines.  From  the  patio  let  us 
step  into  the  kitchen,  one  of  the  very  last 
rooms  of  the  house,  well  removed  from  the 
front.  Lest  your  first  glimpse  disappoint  you 
too  greatly,  let  me  say  that  the  fuel  used  is 
charcoal,  the  stoves,  charcoal  braziers  or  ce¬ 
ment  “camping  stoves”,  built  right  into  the 
kitchen.  Into  square  holes  in  the  top  of  these 
stoves  are  fitted  iron  grates  where  the  charcoal 
fire  is  made.  Charcoal  is  not  a  bad  kind  of 
dirt,  yet  it  is  black,  and  little  pieces  of  it  do 
fall  upon  the  floor  to  be ‘Stepped  upon,  and  the 
dust  of  it  clings  to  the  cook’s  clothes  ami 
hands,  and  the  open  fire  discolors  walls  and 

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ceilings  in  a  short  time.  In  some  homes,  kero¬ 
sene  stoves  are  replacing  the  charcoal.  But 
we  must  be  going,  and  I  must  not  forget  to  in¬ 
terpret  for  you  that  which  Dona  Maria’s  par¬ 
ents  are  saying  to  us  as  we  leave.  “Must  you 
go  so  soon?  Come  again.  Our  house  is  yours 
— we  are  at  your  orders.” 

Now  let  us  go  out  to  Hato  Tejas  to  visit 
Dona  Eustaquia.  Dear  old  Dona  Eustaquia  is 
one  of  our  first  members  here.  She  lives  just 
across  the  street  from  the  Mission  building, 
ller’s  is  one  of  those  hospitable  homes  where 
her  friends  feel  welcome.  Anyone  who  has  for¬ 
merly  lived  in  Hato  Tejas,  wishing  to  return 
for  a  visit,  is  always  safe  in  establishing  head¬ 
quarters  at  Dona  Eustaquia’s.  They  are  all 
made  welcome. 

Eustaquia’s  is  a  frame  house  with  board 
doors  and  unsealed  board  walls.  It  is  a  six- 
roomed  house,  fairly  comfortable,  though  not 
as  pretentious  as  the  city  home  we  have  vis¬ 
ited.  Eustaquia  herself  is  the  chief  ornament, 
ller’s  is  a  splendid  Christian  character.  She 
came  out  and  made  a  stand  for  Christ  when 
neighbors  and  relatives  opposed,  and  taunted 
and  avoided  her.  She  lived  a  consistent  Chris¬ 
tian  life  in  spite  of  them,  and  saw  them  com¬ 
ing  back  to  her,  one  by  one,  as  they  needed 
her  Help  in  sickness  or  trouble.  She  has  stood 
by  the  church  when  we  had  a  preacher  and 
when  we  didn’t.  She  has  taught  the  Begin¬ 
ner’s  Class  for  several  years,  bringing  with 
her  her  own  little  daughters,  her  nieces  and 
nephews,  and  her  neighbors’  children,  all  of 
whom  are  very  fond  of  her. 


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Next  we  must  visit  Lorenza  lip  in  Dajaos. 
Lorenza  is  an  orphanage  girl,  a  demure,  mod¬ 
est,  sweet  dispositioned  little  tiling,  weighing 
not  more  than  ninety  pounds,  1  am  sure.  Lor¬ 
enza  is  not  strong.  She  fights  tuberculosis  all 
of  the  time,  and  were  it  not  for  her  naturally 
cheerful  disposition  and  her  out-of-door  work 
she  might  be  an  invalid  instead  of  a  Christian 
worker.  She  is  what  we  might  call  a  deaconess 
in  the  Dajaos  church,  which,  you  remember,  is 
located  in  the  coffee  district,  three  miles  from 
a  road.  She  visits  the  members,  reads  to  the 
blind,  the  shut-ins,  the  aged  and  any  who 
have  not  had  the  privilege  of  learning  to  read. 
She  explains  the  duties  of  the  Christian  life. 
She  teaches  girls  and  women  to  crochet,  hem¬ 
stitch  or  darn  hose.  She  is  a  general  favorite 
in  Dajaos,  and  the  members  support  her,  pay¬ 
ing  her  a  little  monthly  wage.  They  built  a 
little  home  for  her.  It  is  located  about  half 
way  down  the  hill  from  the  Dajaos  church.  She 
is  near  the  church  but  has  a  steep  climb  to 
reach  it.  The  house  is  new  looking,  made  with 
undressed  lumber,  palm  sheaths  and  thatch. 
Sheaths  of  palm  form  the  doors  inside  the 
house,  too.  Palm  sheath  is  somewhat  like 
birch  bark,  only  it  is  thicker  and  very  stiff. 
The  thatched  roof  is  far  more  comfortable  un¬ 
der  that  tropical  sun  than  a  tin  roof. 

Lorenza’s  mother  keeps  house  for  her,  and 
raises  chickens  and  turkeys  and  a  little  gar¬ 
den.  The  last  time  I  was  in  Dajaos,  Lorenza’s 
mother,  Dona  Marcolina,  made  some  delicious 
arro  con  polio  (chicken  and  rice),  and  sent  us 
a  generous  helping. 


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Let  us  go  with  Lorenza  to  visit  some  of  the 
members.  Here  is  a  tiny  house  set  up  on  stilts 
so  that  a  heavy  dashing  rain  may  have  plenty 
of  chance  to  run  off,  and  not  form  a  damp  pud¬ 
dle  under  the  house.  The  front  steps  resemble 
a  chicken  roost,  but  in  we  go.  We  sit  upon  a 
home-made  bench,  a  box  and  in  a  home-made 
hammock.  We  look  about  us.  The  floor  is  of 
poles — a  sort  of  corrugated  floor.  They  are 
not  worried  as  to  how  they  can  use  a  rocking 
chair  on  such  a  floor,  for  they  have  no  such 
piece  of  furniture.  The  walls  are  almost  cov¬ 
ered  with  lesson  picture  cards,  Sunday  school 
papers  and  big  pictures  from  the  big  lesson 
chart  at  Sunday  school.  Each  quarter,  as  a 
lesson  is  reviewed,  the  picture  is  torn  off  and 
given  to  someone  in  the  school,  so  at  least 
twelve  families  receive  a  big  picture  each 
quarter. 

At  one  side  of  the  room  are  several  canvas 
cots  folded  up.  They  will  be  put  down  in  this 
room,  tonight,  and  the  father,  mother  and  four 
children  will  occupy  them  and  the  little  baby 
will  swing  in  the  hammock.  There  is  but  one 
other  room  in  the  house  and  that  is  the 
kitchen.  It  is  entirely  separate  from  this  room, 
and  one  takes  several  steps  on  a  little  board 
bridge  in  going  from  this  room  to  the  kitchen. 
There  is  a  little  roof  over  the  bridge,  too,  so 
one  does  not  get  too  wet  going  to  the  kitchen 
on  rainy  days,  unless  the  wind  is  blowing. 

As  soon  as  we  enter  the  kitchen  we  see  why 
it  is  isolated.  Smoke!  Charcoal  is  a  luxury 
not  to  be  afforded  here.  Brush,  sticks  and 
pieces  of  wood  are  the  fuel,  and  since  the 


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kettle  rests  on  three  stones  on  top  of  a  cement 
stove,  and  there  is  no  chimney,  the  kitchen  be¬ 
comes  pretty  smoky.  It  is  a  well  ventilated 
room,  however,  sometimes  having  only  three 
sides,  so  the  smoke  escapes.  That  big  iron  ket¬ 
tle  on  the  stove  is  used  to  cook  beans,  or  rice, 
or  meat,  or  to  toast  coffee.  These  half  gourds 
about  a  foot  and  a  half  long  and  a  foot  wide 
are  used  for  dish  pans.  The  smaller  ones  for 
plates.  Long  strips  from  the  big  gourds  make 
cooking  spoons,  and  strips  from  smaller  gourds 
make  teaspoons.  Gourds  wound  with  bejuca, 
a  kind  of  grapevine,  are  hung  up  by  the  vine 
handle,  and  milk  or  coffee  or  sugar  kept  in 
them.  Gourds  are  used  to  carry  water.  Cocoa- 
nut  shells  make  fine  coffee  cups,  and  the  longer 
they  are  used  the  more  polished  and  shiny  they 
become.  Just  outside  the  door  is  the  mortar 
and  pestle  where  the  coffee  is  ground,  and  not 
many  rods  away  the  coffee  grove  itself.  Here 
is  a  banana  patch  where  several  kinds  of  ba¬ 
nanas  grow.  The  big  coarse  ones,  good  only 
when  cooked,  are  called  platanos.  The  little 
tart  ones,  apple  bananas.  Here,  also,  is  a  lit¬ 
tle  patch  of  corn,  some  beans,  and  a  sweet  po¬ 
tato  patch.  The  needs  of  the  home  are  simple, 
the  people  almost  primitive,  but  the  hearts  are 
sincere  and  true.  As  we  mount  our  horses  and 
ride  down  the  narrow  path  toward  the  road, 
we  hear  them  say,  “Aclios,  vaya  con  Dios” 
(Good-bye,  God  be  with  you). 

Nora  Siler. 

Note — People  are  often  called  by  their  first 
names,  even  when  they  are  old  and  gray.  Don 


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is  the  title  of  respect  used  before  a  man’s  first 
name,  and  Dona  before  a  woman’s  first  name. 
This  custom  is  not  unlike  our  “Miss  Abby”  or 
“Miss  Fanny”  used  so  often  in  tbe  south. 


il 


